Thai Nguyen urged to become regional economic hub

President Truong Tan Sang has asked Thai Nguyen province to overhaul
its investment environment and pinpoint its strengths to transform
itself into an economic hub in the northern mountainous region.

He made the request while working with key provincial officials August
19, as part of his tour of the three northern provinces, also including
Bac Can and Cao Bang, to inspect their socio-economic development,
construction of new-style rural areas and national security.

President Sang said the province must work harder to meet the six
remaining criteria on shifting its economic structure, maintaining
growth rate and building new rural areas.

The leader stressed
that as a link between Hanoi and the northern mountainous localities,
Thai Nguyen needs to speed up ongoing transport projects, especially
ensuring the progress of the Hanoi-Thai Nguyen expressway and
National Highway 3 projects to facilitate investment attraction and
commodity transportation.

Thai Nguyen, strong in processing
industries, should choose capable investors who are willing to work with
local partners to create a linkage chain while developing the support
industry, limiting outsourcing and increasing the rate of locally-made
industrial products, he said.

Moving to the building of new
rural areas, he said the province must set sound criteria and mobilise
social resouces to achieve the best results.

Hailing successes
in ensuring political security and judicial reform, the President asked
the local authorities to well implement the Party build-up in line with
the Resolution set at the fourth meeting of the Communist Party of
Vietnam Central Committee.

According to Secretary of the
provincial Party Committee Nguyen Dinh Phach, Thai Nguyen enjoyed an
economic growth rate of 5.3 percent in the first half of this year. The
index of industrial production was up 5.9 percent, budget collection hit
nearly 2.3 trillion VND (109 million USD) and new jobs were generated
for over 12,600 workers.

He also suggested the President and
ministries offer Thai Nguyen more incentives to develop the province
into one of the economic, medical and training centres in the region.

The same day, President Sang visited the Chien Cong industrial and
transport cooperative, the TNG trading and investment company and worked
with the managment board of the Song Cong industrial zone.-VNA